Young people have been involved in creating imaginative community food initiatives in Scotland. Many are aimed at making healthy eating fun and developing independent living skills, like cooking and shopping, but food is also a good starting point for employability training and getting involved in charitable projects.
A cooking skills course for young asylum seekers and refugees in Glasgow has enabled Youth Community Support Agency (YCSA) to integrate a wide range of skills into their learning, as well as social contacts and ways into getting involved with the local community.
Read ‘YCSA – using cooking to support young asylum seekers and refugees’ here
Joy and Chris from Windmills Café took part in a small group of community cafés looking at self-evaluation with CFHS. They used personal planning, relationship mapping and other tools to evaluate how successful their independent living skills training and employability service was.
Read ‘Windmills Café – evaluating their service to young people with learning disabilities’ here
The Usual Place community café was established to provide high-quality, strengths-based training around catering and hospitality for young adults aged 16-26 with additional support needs, with the aim of enabling them to move on to employment. The café is based in the centre of Dumfries.
Read ‘The Usual Place – catering and hospitality skills for young people’ here
Elgin Youth Development Group – imaginative food and health activities
EYDG provide a safe social space for young people in the Elgin area. To support the work they do, they offer room and catering hire through their social enterprise, The Inkwell which allows them to offer work experience opportunities for young people throughout Moray.
Read ‘Elgin Youth Development Group – imaginative food and health activities’ here